


"I'll Help You Study"

by orphan_account



Series: CHALLENGE: One Hundred Ways to Say "I Love You" [3]
Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 19:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4535013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Val offers to help Zendaya memorize the parts of the human body.  </p>
<p>This is my third fic (of one hundred) for the One Hundred Ways to Say “I Love You” challenge. This is prompt #65.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I'll Help You Study"

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive me if there are errors. It's been quite some time since I've taken anatomy myself. 
> 
> This is fiction, not reality.

Zendaya sat her elbow on the counter next to her textbook, propping her chin up on her hand.  She had been staring at the same anatomical diagram for the last twenty minutes, trying and failing to memorize the different parts of the human body.  Part of the problem was that science was not her best or favorite subject.  The other part stood on the opposite side of the counter, making dinner for her in his kitchen. 

Val was being quiet, trying to let her concentrate, but ever since they had admitted their feelings for each other a few months ago, simply being around him had become a distraction.  When she was with him, all she wanted to do was focus on him, but that was difficult to do when she had finals coming up.  Part of her was driven to study, but the other part was extremely aware of the fact that Val would be on tour again for the next three months and she had a limited amount of time to spend with him.  All she wanted to do was eat dinner with him, catch up on his day, share aspects of hers, and enjoy his company until she had to go home in a few hours.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. 

“How’s it coming?” he asked, glancing over at her from where he stood in front of the stove. 

She released her frustration, slamming her book shut.  “I just can’t remember all of this.  How am I supposed to keep this all straight?  And it’s not like I’ll ever use this again once I graduate, so why do I have to know all of this?”

“You never know, Z.  You might land a role on a medical drama and you’d be better off if you knew this.” 

“Funny,” she answered, smiling despite herself. 

“It could happen,” he stated, grinning back. 

He looked back over at the pasta, stirring it before sitting the wooden spoon to the side.  He came around the counter, standing behind her and motioning for her to re-open her textbook.  She grimaced before finding the right page.  She glanced up and watched as he took in the diagrams, which depicted muscles, organs, systems, and bone structures. 

“Alright, let’s try this.”  She swiveled the seat on her bar stool to see him better just in time to watch him to pull his shirt over his head and lay it on the counter. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, immediately distracted by his bare chest.  She didn’t understand why it affected her so much.  It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen his chest before, but everything seemed to have a different connotation now that they were dating. 

“I’ll help you study while we wait for dinner to finish cooking.”

“And…how do you plan on doing that?”  He pulled her from the stool, her bare feet landing on the cool wood floor as she stood.  He made sure that her back was to the book, standing in front of her so that he would be able to see it if he needed to.  Instead of answering her question, he took one of her hands and placed it against his collarbone, covering it with his own. 

“What is this called?” he asked. 

“Val, I don’t think –

“Humor me.”

She sighed.  “Your collarbone.”

He raised an eyebrow. 

“The clavicle.”

“How many are there?”

“Two.”

“And they’re connected to…?”

“The scapula and…”  Her voice drifted off as he squeezed her hand.  She knew he meant it as encouragement, but it only served to remind her that she was alone with him in his apartment and he stood before her, naked to the waist.  She brushed her thumb against his skin, admiring the way it felt beneath her own. 

“Daya.”  Her gaze jumped up to meet his.  “Concentrate.”  He said it with a teasing smile, but the look in his eyes showed that he was just as affected as she was. 

“Sorry.  The scapula and the…”  She closed her eyes and bit her lip.  “It’s the breastbone, but there’s another name for it.”

 He glanced over her shoulder at the textbook.  “The sternum.”  He moved their hands down, tracing the location of the bone in his own body to reinforce the name in her mind.  Her breath stuttered out of her chest and she opened her eyes.

“The sternum,” she repeated quietly.  Val swallowed before sliding their hands to one side of his chest. 

“And this?”

“The pectoral muscle.”

“Made up of…?”

“Pectoralis major and pectoralis minor.”

After glancing at the book, he nodded.  He moved their hands down again, resting them beneath his pecs.  She could feel his breathing pick up slightly in tempo as they passed over his nipple.    

“And this?”

“The thoracic cage.  It encloses the heart and lungs.” 

“Good.”  He moved his hand down a bit more.  “And here?”

“The abdominis…”  As well defined as they were, she was _well_ aware of his abs.  She lightly stroked a finger over them and felt his stomach muscles clench. 

“Good…that’s – that’s good.”  She was fairly sure that the obliques would be next, as they rested around the waistband area.  Maybe she knew this stuff better than she realized. 

She was also well aware that things were becoming more and more dangerous the longer this progressed.  Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breasts rising and falling faster than they typically would as her respiratory rate increased.  As she looked up into Val’s emerald eyes, she couldn’t help noticing that his pupils were dilating and the hand hanging at his side was clenched into a fist. 

“Val…” she murmured.  She placed her other hand against his stomach, making the muscle in his jaw – _the masseter? –_ jump.  Gently sliding her hand away from his, he skimmed them both up his bare chest and over his shoulders. 

He shook his head, as though trying to wake up from a dream.  “We shouldn’t –

Zendaya allowed instinct to take over, pressing her lips to his.  For a single moment, he didn’t respond.  He froze, trying to regain some semblance of control, but when Zendaya nipped at his bottom lip, he reached up and cupped her face with both hands.  Weaving his fingers into her hair, he gently tipped her head back and opened his mouth. 

As their tongues met, Val walked her backwards before picking her up and depositing her on a bar stool.  One of his hands remained at her waist while the other returned to lightly cup her cheek.  He slowly pushed up the edge of her shirt, giving her plenty of time to pull away, before he gently laid his fingers against her stomach. 

She gasped into his mouth, letting the sensations bombarding her body overwhelm her.  Careful not to hurt him, she deliberately grazed her fingernails over his back before soothing it with feather light touches.  He groaned, leaning into her further until they were pressed against each other completely.  The hard planes of his body met the soft curves of hers, temporarily bringing him out of the moment.  Pulling his lips from hers, he buried his face in her neck. 

“ _Dayachka…_ ” he murmured.  “We don’t have to…that’s not why I…” 

She knew that he had honestly only intended to help her memorize human anatomy, that he had never planned on it leading to such a huge step in their relationship.  He loved her and he wanted nothing more than to see her succeed; of course he would offer to help if he could.  But despite not planning for it to happen, it _had_ led to something more between them, something that Zendaya craved desperately.  She gently reached up and pulled his head back so that she could look at him.  His eyes slowly opened, meeting hers. 

“I love you, Val.  I’m _in_ love with you,” she said quietly.  Seeing the emotion in his eyes made a lump build in her throat and she swallowed, trying desperately to push it back. 

“I love you too, Z, so damn much. I –

She cut him off, placing a finger over his lips.  Tears gathered in her eyes and she tried to blink them away.  Although they had admitted they had romantic feelings for each other, they had never before uttered those words to each other in this context.  It meant the world to hear them returned.  She knew that he would probably continue, expounding on his love for her, but she wanted to have her say. 

“I know that love is multi-faceted, that it’s made up of countless things, and…I want to share all of them with you.  _All_ of them.”  She paused, cupping his face with a hand.  “Make love to me, Val.”  He pressed his forehead to hers and she relished in the closeness, hoping that he wanted the same things she did and would finally, completely give into them. 

Without any warning, Val moved away from her.  Surprised, Zendaya stood from her stool and watched him enter the kitchen. 

“What –

He switched the stove off and removed the pan, sitting it on a potholder.

“I want to take my time and I don’t plan on burning the apartment down while I do it,” he said as he returned to her.  He lifted her into his arms and she quickly wrapped her legs around his waist.  He brought her face down to his, kissing her as he walked to his bedroom and shut the door, closing out the world and everyone else in it. 

They had been in sync on so many things, from dancing to their views on life, so it shouldn’t have surprised her that they would be in sync with this as well.  Lying in bed with him afterwards, their limbs entangled as her head rested on his chest, she realized that it did, if only because she had never known that she could feel this safe, this loved, this understood by another human being.  And yet…that’s exactly what she had found with him.   


End file.
